


A Different Future (Than You Ever Expected)

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Escape, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 00:38:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5687863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time travel AU - Parker is being hunted through 1920's New York by an agency from the future, whose job is to monitor and protect Earth's timeline from people who would use time travel technology for their own selfish and dangerous ends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Future (Than You Ever Expected)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Radiolaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radiolaria/gifts).



> I've never seen the source material you linked, but this idea has had me by the muse since you first posted it. I hope you enjoy this first look - I'm seriously considering returning to this idea once life quiets down and giving it a more in depth treatment.
> 
> In the meantime, thank you for playing with us again! I hope you enjoyed it!

They had her. Nate didn’t want to consider how many man-hours out of his quarterly budget it had taken to bring them to this point; right now he just wanted to bask in the sight of the most famous thief of the twentieth century being marched from the transporter chamber by the battered and bruised agent who had finally brought her to heel.

“He’s going to have words for you.” The director’s voice shivered across his skin. Sophie Devereaux came up behind him, her stiletto heels tapping out a sharp rhythm on the metal catwalk. “I don’t remember the last time I saw him this angry.”

“Last fall,” Nate said, glancing back at her over the rim of his glasses. “I had to send two agents to extract him after Parker stole his portal key and got him jammed up with the local law.”

Turning, Sophie leaned on the railing, watching the scene below. “We’re lucky she never figured out how to use the thing. Can you imagine the chaos an undisciplined thief like that could have caused?”

Nate chuckled softly. “I hope you’re feeling this expansive when you see my expense report for the month. This one’s already cost us, with more to come if I’m going to make her fit for the project.”

The director turned towards him then, raising one elegant eyebrow. “Turn her into something besides another body filling space in my jail, and we’ll consider the scales balanced.”  
*********************************  
Three days since she’d eaten – the ache in Parker’s belly was all she had to convince herself that she wasn’t dreaming. Otherwise she would have believed herself mad or dreaming or worse – nothing in her life besides the occasional afternoon spent hiding in the local movie palace could have prepared her for the drastic turn her life had taken.

“Stand up!” Eliot Spencer jerked her up as she stumbled, forcing a cry of pain from her. Parker had thought he was a particularly stubborn police detective, right up until the point he’d put the strange locking gloves on her and changed her reality forever. She hadn’t gone down without making a good fight of it though – every time she caught a glimpse of the bruises tattooing her captor’s cheek, Parker couldn’t help smiling.

Wherever Spencer taken her, the two of them were certainly drawing attention. The people they passed looked normal enough, if a lot cleaner and more strangely dressed than anything Parker had ever seen. “What happens now?” she asked, trying to flex her fingers inside the strange gloves again and failing to get even a millimeter of movement.

“Now,” Spencer said, pulling her up in front of a desk where a cute, dark-skinned young man sat, “if there’s any justice in the world you get dropped in a hole and forgotten. Boss in, Alec?”

 _Alec, huh?_ Parker grinned at him and felt a spark of warmth in her chest when he grinned back. “He left word for you to wait for him inside.” Dark eyes looked Parker over. “Cute. I thought she’d be taller, though.”

“Stick to your technomancy, Hardison,” Spencer growled. “This one is definitely out of your league.” Parker winced as his grip on her arm noticeably tightened; he forced her past the desk, towards an open door.

Once they were over the threshold, he pushed her towards a chair. Parker ducked, twisting free of his hold. Stumbling a little, she turned and braced herself against the desk – lashing out hard with both feet. Her kick caught Spencer in the stomach, but he moved with the impact and used his longer reach to pull her completely off balance and in against his chest.

Breath temporarily knocked out of her, Parker felt her world light up with pain as her shoulder joint moved in a way she knew it wasn’t designed to. Pressure immediately eased on her right hand, giving her the movement she’d been searching for in her fingers.

Spencer was so angry with what she’d done that he didn’t notice what had happened. “Where do you think you’re going to go?” he growled, hugging her tight. Recognizing the advantage she’d been given, Parker didn’t fight him. “Outside that door is a different time and place from anything you’ve ever imagined.”

That caught her attention – twisting around until she could see his face, Parker asked, “What do you mean by a different time and place?”

“He means that you are in the headquarters of the Ministry of Time,” said a new voice. Eliot turned with her, and Parker saw an older man in a flash suit standing in the open doorway. “The year is 2543 – six hundred and seventeen years from the time you left – and my name is Nathan Ford.”  
***************************************  
She was thinner than he’d expected. Nate searched his memory of Parker’s file and remembered that most of what had driven the girl to steal in the first place were the twin demons of poverty and hunger. “Give us the room Agent Spencer,” he said, barely giving Eliot a glance. “Tell Alec to have some food sent up.”

The director’s warning about how his top agent was going to have “words” for him rose up in his memory as Eliot let Parker go and stepped back, but Nate couldn’t waste the energy worrying about fragile egos. Not when the key to everything he’d wanted to do since joining the Ministry was finally under his control.

“Could you take these things off?” Parker asked, once the two of them were alone. Turning, she showed him her bound arms. “They’re really starting to hurt.”

Nate looked her over carefully, then smiled. “Get yourself out.” Parker’s eyes widened for a second, then narrowed. Clearly having gotten the measure of him, she began to writhe in a way that suggested her bones didn’t work in the same way normal human anatomy functioned. By the time Nate reached his desk chair, she was easing her right arm free of the restraints. Eyes shining with triumph, she brought her left arm around to the front and swiftly stripped off the other glove.

“Do you need help putting your shoulder back in place?” Nate asked, his outward calm belying an inner excitement. Untrained, undisciplined, and with no frame of reference for the tech they’d used on her, she’d worked out literally the only way to slip free of the restraints.

Smiling openly now, Parker put her left hand on the ball of her right shoulder joint. One sharp push was all it took – Nate saw a brief flash of pain cross her expression, and then she was standing opposite him as if nothing had happened.

“Your pain tolerance must be off the charts,” he said, taking his seat and gesturing for her to do the same. “I feel obligated to warn you that if you try to escape it will be into a world where we have the advantage on you. And if we have to chase you down, this story ends with you in a jail cell, alone and forgotten for the rest of your days.”

Her file had indicated no formal schooling, but as he watched her Nate was more and more convinced that there was an innate intelligence there that would greatly benefit the Ministry “Am I really in the future?” Parker asked, finally settling into her own chair.

Nate nodded at her. “You are in a world where time travel is possible. It is the job of my agency to oversee use of that technology; make sure that it isn’t misused by people wanting to take advantage of vulnerable times and places in history.”

Parker grinned at him. “Like me.”

“Like you,” Nate acknowledged. “In your case though, the hope is that I can set a thief to catch a thief. A whole lot of thieves, in fact.”

There was a light rap on the open doorway. Nate looked up to see Alec with a tray of food. He gestured his assistant in. “I’m putting together an elite team,” Nate said, drawing Parker’s attention as Alec arranged a small table in front of her. “Alec here is going to be part of it, so will Agent Spencer.” He focused on the young man. “Have a seat, Alec.”

When he returned his attention to Parker, the thief was already stuffing food into her mouth. “We want you to be part of the team as well, Parker. Your job will be to help us stop people intending to use time travel technology to change history for their own purposes.”

The office was silent for a long moment, the only sounds Parker chewing down on her food. Nate settled back into his chair, waiting patiently for the thief to be able to speak. The break in conversation allowed him to study Alec’s response to their potential new recruit. What he saw definitely gave him hope that Parker would have at least one person in her corner going forward.

“Jail if I say no?” Parker asked, once she was finally able to speak.

“You’ll never see the light of day again,” Nate said evenly.

Another smile lit the girl’s features. “When do we start?”


End file.
